Formerly iridium satellite llc is a publicly traded american company headquartered in mclean virginia iridium operates the iridium satellite constellation a system of 66 active satellites and 9 spares in space used for worldwide voice and data communication from hand held satellite phones and other transceiver units.
Iridium next satellite size.
The iridium satellite constellation provides l band voice and data information coverage to satellite phones pagers and integrated transceivers over the entire earth surface.
Iridium when pilots fly over these low coverage areas air traffic controllers keep planes very far apart putting about 30 to 100.
Leopold and ken peterson in late 1987 in 1988 protected.
The network is a very unique resilient leo low earth orbiting satellite constellation of 66 satellites plus in orbit spares.
Only iridium offers truly global communications through a constellation of 66 crosslinked leo satellites.
Under iridium next openport devices will achieve up to 512 kbps.
An artistic rendering of what an iridium next satellite image.
Iridium is a mss mobile satellite services provider the only network provider offering 100 worldwide coverage.
So iridium next will be very much consistent with modern ip based communications.
The iridium next satellites are based on thales alenia s elitebus 1000 extended lifetime bus satellite platform each weighing 860 kilograms at launch and measuring 3 1 by 2 4 by 1 5 meters in size in its stowed configuration.
Hosted payload specifications of the iridium next constellation.
The first generation launch campaign was completed in 2002 for a total of 95 satellites launched.
In addition to handheld satellite phones iridium openport devices like the iridium pilot currently offer up to 128 136 kbps data rates and there is an actual ethernet port on the pilot terminal.
Brochure for improvements to iridium s network through iridium next satellite launches in chinese.